Tom Cruise to celebrate turning 50 by hiring old divorce team

A ‘devastated and heartbroken’
Tom Cruise will spend his 50th birthday arming for divorce with the same legal muscle that saw off his second showbiz wife
Nicole Kidman.

Muted screen star: Tom Cruise walks to his chopper in Iceland where he is set to mark his birthday (Picture: Flynet)

The actor’s milestone turned even bleaker before the candles arrived after it was alleged his runaway wife, Katie Holmes , jumped ship over fears he would send their six-year-old daughter Suri to a Scientology boot camp.

The latest speculation about his controversial religion came as he enlisted Dennis Wasser, the man who steered him through his £340million divorce battle with Aussie Nicole in 2001.

Another of Cruise’s legal advisers said the star was hoping his third divorce didn’t turn messy as he refused to reveal if Holmes had been made to sign a pre-nup.

‘I would hope that it’s not a contentious matter,’ said litigator Bert Fields. ‘I know Tom is not a particularly contentious person.’

Holmes, 33, is thought to be in the hands of her Ohio-based lawyer dad, Martin Holmes, who has now joined her in New York.

Boot camp: The Freewinds where Cruise is said to have wanted to send Suri (Picture: Splash)

The legal manoeuvre came as fresh allegations surfaced that Cruise wanted to send their daughter to ‘hardcore Scientology’ group, the Sea Organization, based on the ship Freewinds.

According to TMZ, kids as young as five are sent to the ‘boot camp’ without their parents ‘to be taught the ‘highest levels of Scientology’.

The chilling prospect was alleged to be the ‘flashpoint’ for Holmes as she decided to end the couple’s five-and-a-half-year marriage.

As for Cruise, he is said to be chilled to the bone by Holmes’s exit as he prepares for ‘muted’ celebrations in Iceland today where he is filming sci-fi thriller Oblivion.

‘He had no idea this was coming,’ said a friend. ‘He’s totally devastated and heartbroken.’